Apocalypse Life/Issue 28
Issue 28 - Goodmusic 2007 It didn’t take long for them to find the freeway entrance; after a few turns from the mansion’s street, they were already there. Nina was mostly the one guiding him, as he didn’t really spend too much time in this place. They make a curved turn as the arc of the highway takes them up to the freeway. The road was just as clean as normal days, with the sparkling ocean overviewed to its left side. Nina tried to get a look by bobbing her head back and forth, since her only view was blocked by Julius. “Wish I sat in the back,” she says, leaning her head to look at the passenger window of the backseat. He looks at her briefly and asks “You wanna switch?” before looking back on the road. “Naw,” she replies; instead, she had pushed the backrest of her seat back, almost as if she was lying down. “It’s fine.” After looking at the small view for a few seconds, she pushes her hand down onto the side of the seat, reverting it back to its original position. Julius took a gander of it himself. He couldn’t believe how beautiful the ocean looked even at a time like this. How it created sparkles from the bright, yellow rays of the sun. “I don’t know why I didn’t move here. I mean, to be able to see that everyday. Amazing.” Nina, who was busy looking through her passenger window, turns to him and smirks. “I know, right?” She starts to notice the large hill of stone and moss to Julius’s side that seems to cut off the view. “I mean I wanted to live here but it costs too much.” She turns to the view of her window, resting her chin back against her hand. This brought a thought in Julius’s head. “You don’t live here?” he asks, glancing at her briefly. “Nah,” she casually replies. “Oh.” Julius stays silent for a moment, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. The view to his side continues, this time with the sand part becoming more visible. “Where do you live?” Nina lets the silence loom some more, for a few seconds. “Where we’re going.” “Ah.” Julius, realizing the inevitable awkwardness is about to arrive, delays his responses again. “That’s convenient.” “Heeyep.” Nina, by this time, rested her head against her seat. Her two hands were on top of each other while she looked back and forth to her passenger window and the on-going road. She starts blowing the hair on her forehead weakly in short instances. She realizes now that her hair was still untied. Her headband was in her backpack, in the back of her seat, right next to Meredith. She looks at Julius, waiting for him to comment on her untied hair, but realizes that he did that already about an hour ago. A few strands start to fall onto her forehead as she continued blowing. She playfully pats her lap a few times and decides it’s time to tie it back again. She turns around her seat, letting her folded legs sit against it. Julius, noticing this sudden rush of movement, glances her once. Nina reaches for her backpack with one hand, and grabs it. She frivolously sits back and rests her backpack on her lap. She unzips the middle-most pocket and takes out an elegant, yet familiar black headband in its unwrapped form. Thousands of flowers of different, yet faded colors flood one side of it; the other side is nothing but black. This is why it’s her favorite one. Julius turns to her briefly to notice that she was tying her hair; her eyes blankly look back at him while her hands move busily behind her head. He almost instantly reverts back to the road as if he needed to pay attention to the emptiness of it. ---- It was a silent drive for another five minutes, as they pass by an overhead highway sign, and finally leaving the beach view they initially had; now it’s replaced by a blue ocean that seems to stretch for miles and miles. To Nina’s side of the car was the view of numerous trees, and a few slabs of concrete. Julius lazily looks at the road that continues to go straight, winding occasionally. Nina leans her head against the glass of her window, her elbows resting against the armrests. “I hate awkward silences,” she says, staying frozen in her position. It was usually a trial to get over this kind of zone. She was afraid they were going to cross it at the start of this road trip, but at least it took them a little while to reach it. “Music'd be good right now...” She looks at Julius for his approval, then to the vintage-looking radio player in between them. It had a cassette player, and the old-fashioned radio meter, covered in specks of dust. She felt there could’ve been something hanging against the overhead mirror to complete the mood, seeing how empty it was. She presses the button that says “Power” on it, and sees a silver antenna rising from her side of the car’s hood. A silent, almost mute static sound could be heard from its speakers. Nina somehow expected hearing some sort of working radio station, but almost forgets that the world has ended. She pinches the knob with her two fingers and turns it clockwise, to search for the radio station in question. The static fluctuated and continued on as the arrow moved forward. She reached the halfway point of the meter until the static stumbled upon some kind of blip; a voice, perhaps? “Wait, turn that back,” Julius asks, after hearing that small blip of possible words. Nina gives him a look and says “Probably nothing,” as she continues to turn the knob. The static continued to fluctuate until she reached the right end of the meter. “Nothing…” she says, finally giving up. Julius continues to glance at the radio with a somewhat concerned look. “Alright, I’ll check again.” She pinches the knob again and turns it counter-clockwise, much more slowly this time. The static didn’t fluctuate differently. “I think it was about… the middle,” Julius claims, as Nina starts to cross the half-way point of the meter. Nothing, but more static, responded. “You were hearing things,” she replies, as she reaches the end. “Eh,” Julius says, doing a slight shrug. He gives the winding road an elongated look as if he wasn’t going to take his eyes off of it. Nina leans back into her seat, somewhat disappointed. She contemplates on whether she should play some kind of music, or… She turns to look at the compartment in front of her; how she didn’t check it all this time is beyond her. “This guy better have music.” She leans toward the compartment and snaps it open with her right hand. Inside, a collection of items, all somewhat arranged neatly though slightly misplaced by the car's movement, could be seen. A stack of clear, rectangular containers were squeezed in together to the far left side, while a few sheets of paper, a medium-sized leather bag, and some other knick knacks were stacked on the right. She was more particularly interested in the left stack. She presses her right hand in the middle of the two stacks, and pushes the rectangular containers toward her. Some flying dust made her eyes squint and her nose a bit runny, as the containers inched closer to her. She places the stack of what felt like five on the cup of her two hands. The size, the design, and the wording told her that they were cassette tapes. “Let’s seeee….” She takes the first container with her right hand, examining it to find some kind of wording. The container was blank, and it quickly took her interest away. She continues to shuffle through the tapes, finally finding some form of text in the second container. All of them had a neat, handwritten marker title for her to mumble to herself. “Illuminated blessings… radio goodness number five four—what the hell is this…” She shuffles through three more containers, stopping at the last one. She holds the tape to its side, seeing the text all written like one word. “Good music… 2007.” She nonchalantly throws the rest of the tapes with her left hand into the compartment, taking particular interest with this one. “I hope it’s actual good music,” she says to Julius, opening the container with her two hands. The cassette tape itself looked overused, judging from the faded overall black color and brown stains on its label sticker. She presses the “Eject” button of the radio just to make sure, and receives nothing. She slips the tape in and leans back into her seat, expecting the best. ---- “Okay, okay—I think—I think it’s coming…” The tape played nothing but static for a prolonged moment, followed by a small fraction of a radio broadcaster’s voice. Nina, who was anxiously looking at the radio waiting for a song to play, somehow affected Julius himself; now he was as anxious as her. “Here—I think this is it—” she says, as a simple beat of a bass and cymbal comes into sound. “Oh, oh… no… no…” Nina curves her eyebrows as she hears the female singer sing over the on-going beat. “No… this is not good music, Carl…” She decided on the name of its owner about five minutes ago. “Carl?” Julius adds, giving her a look. His opinion about the song was all the same, though; it was all the rage during its time. “Yeah h-he’s the one who owned this car… beanie, douchebag hair, weed, the works—but—” The song was in the middle of the familiar-sounding chorus when Nina finally decides to fast-forward through it. “I can already tell this won’t be good music,” she affirms, glancing at Julius with slight aversion. Julius, wanting to ask more about how she knew the car’s owner, starts to feel that this was going to be a game; her reaction, after all, was the only thing that’s made him laugh throughout this car ride. Nina stops holding onto the “FF” button, hoping that she’s past the song now. “Whoa, oops—” She holds the button again upon hearing that she stopped at the song’s conclusion. -------- “Good.” “No! Bad!!” Julius and Nina have resorted to playing a game upon hearing each track; they’d voice their one-word opinions on it once it comes on. “It’s awesome! I heard it on the radio a lot,” Julius says, trying to defend the song as best as he could. Thinking about it, he regrets settling on one station in the pet shop he worked in. “No, no no no no—” Nina stubbornly shakes her head. “Nothing, nothing about being hot or cold is awesome.” It was unfortunate for her to be hearing the same artist again. “Whatever.” Julius was satisfied to see her repelled expression. “Fast forward to the next track.” “I think you’re a teenaged girl.” After saying “yes” to the five songs from earlier, she had all the reason to think so. She eagerly clicks the fast-forward button just to mute the song too painful for her ears. “I swear if this song also sucks I’m throwing this tape out the window…” After about ten seconds, she stops fast-forwarding. They were greeted by a few simple strums of the guitar, then the singer’s pleasant voice… “Wow.” Nina was almost awe-struck by this sudden turn of music taste. “Good—” they both say, in unison. Julius gives her a smirked glance, while Nina continues to admire the song. “Unbelievable. And here I thought… here I thought Carl would disappoint me.” “Okay—for goodness’ sake—who the hell is Carl? Did you know him or something?” Nina turns to him, looking at him weirdly. “No…” The uncertainty she left in her tone reassured Julius that she was just making this up. “Anyway…” She lets the singer continue to fill the car with her serene, relaxed voice, with the simple strums of guitar strings, and some percussion sounds combined… It’s been ages since she’s heard this song. She held on to every note on the guitar, every word in the lyric, as she felt the singer whisper in her ears. She looks at the view to her left; the rustling leaves of the trees, coupled by the rays of the sun shining above it somehow made her feel extremely nostalgic. She aspired to be like this singer at one point. “’Shboom, ‘shboom…” she mumbles, taking the place of the back-up singer. “Oh-kay, next track…” As the song ended after what seemed like an hour for her, she instantaneously leans out of her seat and holds her finger onto the fast-forward button again. She stops, upon hearing silence. She was starting to be proud of her perfect tape fast-forwarding skills. The intro starts with yet another drum beat, and is then followed by a funky guitar rhythm. “Oh you gotta be kidding me—” Nina was once again awe-struck in hearing yet another good song. She ignores Julius, who said “Good” right away in the middle of her sentence. “This guy is two for two right now… wow….” The image of Carl in her head was starting to turn from trashy teenager to a cool, adult guy who regularly smokes pot. ---- They didn’t know what it was, but as the songs continued to play, they were able to finally carry on an on-going conversation. They burned through multiple topics, like concerts, county fair food, and horses, all while the tape played through its ninth song. “… well no, my dad’s actually Hispanic. My mom’s the more Asian-y one. She’s Filipino.” Nina scans the side of his face for another few seconds, then stops. “Ah, okay—but you seriously look like you’re Filipino though.” “Really? Some people say I look more Hispanic.” “Hmmm… I guess it’s a two-sides-of-the-same-coin kind of thing.” “Yeah, probably.” Somehow after this, they jump into the topic of school. “… only ten units, seriously. I don’t know. I think I’m stupid or something.” Nina was dipped into her seat, her tone a bit lazy. “Don’t say that. What classes did you take?” “Calculus and… and English 4A.” “Ah. That explains a lot.” “Yeah. I mean I barely paid attention in Math during—during school. My mom, though… she didn’t care… she said ‘as long as I’m done going through the requirements of the system I’ll be fine’. You know.” “Oh. Yeah, so she’s... she’s one of those moms, I see.” “You know, I would’ve already punched you by now by saying that.” Julius gives her a somewhat blank look, and she returns it with her faux-fearsome expression. “But I agree.” He scoffs, glad to hear it. “I mean you’re kind of a hippie yourself… do you—are you vegan?” “Hell no.” Nina daintily shakes her head. “I eat whatever I want.” “Oh, okay.” Julius was very close to laughing at her if she was. “Yeah. My mom would try to show how displeased she is with her looks, though. It’s funny.” A smirk grows in Nina’s face as she recalls this memory. After a few seconds of silence, she looks at her wrists, noticing its bareness. “Oh, my—” She turns around for her backpack, and stretches her left hand to grab it. “What?” Julius asks, glancing her once. It was at this time that he, too, notices her bare hands. Nina places the backpack on her lap, then scans around her neck with her fingers; at least she’s wearing her necklace. She touches her left ear lobe and also finds it bare. “I’m not—” She starts to look busy as she digs through the big pocket of her backpack. “I’m not wearing my stuff—” “Oh.” Julius recalls the numerous accessories she donned upon first seeing her; it was only the wristbands he could remember… He glances at her, to see if he missed anything; he recalled her wearing gloves, too, if his memory serves him right. He catches some kind of black marking on the top of her right hand. Nina notices him looking and tries to hide her hand by digging it inside the backpack’s opened pocket. “What’s that on your hand?” he asks, turning back on the road. “Nothing,” Nina replies instantly, going back to her digging. After a while, her hands come out with the two bracelets, her single glove, and a bandage roll. She skillfully slips her bracelets in quick succession, then wears the glove in her left hand. She then prepares the roll of tape, unrolling a long strip with her bare, right hand. She makes sure she does it behind her backpack, so that Julius doesn’t see. “What’s wrong?” Julius asks; after thinking about it, he assumes the marking is a tattoo. Nina scans the symbol on her hand for a few seconds, and finally decides there’s no shame in hiding it. She places her backpack away, leaving the roll of arm wrappings in her left hand. “Fine, fine…” She stretches the fingers of her right hand and shows the back of her hand to Julius, who looks at it with interest for a few seconds. It was a collection of vine-like lines shaped into a circle that could fit the back of her palm. “It’s cool. Does it… does it mean in anything?” Nina takes back her hand and look at it herself. “Well… not really. I just like the cool design.” “Oh. How much did it cost?” Nina starts to unroll a long strip from the roll of wrappings. “Uh… it was free.” “Really? How come?” “My uh… nothing, it’s nothing.” The hastened movement of her left hand wrapping her right hand translated her guilt. “Nothing? Really? Nothing?” She was starting to regret bringing this up. “Yes nothing,” she promptly replies. This only pushed Julius to irk her some more. “Okay.” Nina was afraid he was going to ask, but the way he continued to remain silent made her think otherwise. She resumes wrapping her right hand, hoping for this discussion to be over. “So… where’s the other pair of those gloves?” he asks; she felt slightly relieved upon hearing it. “Oh, this… right.” She stops wrapping her hand for a second to examine her gloved hand. “I found it one time since I really needed gloves. A roll of arm wrappings came with it so... I figured I’d just make use of it.” “Oh. That’s cool.” Julius reverts to his silence again, while Nina continues to mummify her hand. “So… who tattooed that?” Julius gives her a smirked look while she returns it with annoyance. “Oh, for the love of—can we just drop that right now? Forget I said anything.” “Okay. But tell me.” The growing shyness in her expressions only made him more curious. Plus, it was hilarious seeing her so sheltered. “It was a discount. At the shop. They really liked me.” The way she half-heartedly sped through those words told him nothing. “That’s nice. But really, tell me.” “Shush!” Nina holds the index finger of her glove-folding left hand to her mouth. “He must be really awesome." He lowers his pitch and says "Tell me." “Okay, okay!” She pauses wrapping her right hand, half-way through covering the tattoo. “My ex-boyfriend did it for me.” She heaves her chest, half-regretting bringing this up, and half-relieved that she finally said it. “It was a long time ago.” “Hm. Well okay.” So that explains to him why she wanted to cover it. “You… had a boyfriend?” he follows. “Can we just drop it, please?” ---- Julius didn’t cease asking her about it, since her reactions made him chuckle. She didn’t seem proud talking about this subject, as she sounded regretful all throughout. Maybe he shouldn't have asked. “… he was so clingy. So... so controlling of everything, and… I just—I was kind of … growing up a lot by this time.” Nina pauses her seemingly lengthy story, pausing in front of the vanishing road. “So we broke up. And I... I saw things. Learned stuff.” Julius was starting to sense something in her story. She recited his actions so clearly, as if they were the only things that mattered. “Of course it wouldn’t take me another year, but…” Her volume trails off in his mind. He tries to piece it together, but she is just so feminine… “Did you hear me?” she repeats, snapping him out of his daydreaming. “What? Did… did you—” “I like girls, Julius. And I hope you’re cool with that.” He glances her with a blank face, which grows into a smirk. “What, what—” she impatiently cries. “It’s fine. It’s awesome. I’m cool with it.” It was awesome of her to share this with him. Of course, they were reaching that point in the conversation. The way she was so easy to tease, coupled by how serious she is about her music, made Julius think of her as a little sister. It was even clearer now. “So… I… I told you about him. Now it’s time for you to tell me about Alice.” It was almost unbelievable for a second. It was like Margaret was asking him this dreaded question. “A-Alice…?” “Yeah.” Nina turns back to her window, chewing the index finger of her bandage-wrapped right hand. “I mean I know she has better taste in music—better than you—and that half of her face is pretty. And I know you really love her. So, shoot.” ---- Category:Apocalypse Life Category:Apocalypse Life Issues Category:Issues Category:KnowledgeProspector Stories